WASTE MANAGEMENT I WASTE HIERARCHY EUROPEAN UNION FRAMEWORK WASTE DIRECTIVE DEFINITION OF WASTE + ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS 1 Environmental Law

Waste Management I 2 European Union Waste Framework Directive 2008, provides legislative framework for the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste Definition of Waste Requires MSs to take the necessary measures to ensure waste is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health or causing harm to the environment Permitting, Registration and Inspection Requirements

Waste Management I 3 Requires MSs to take appropriate measures to encourage: Firstly, the prevention or reduction of waste production and its harmfulness; Secondly, the recovery of waste by means of recycling, re-use or reclamation or any other process in order to extract secondary raw materials, or use waste as a source of energy

Waste Hierarchy 4 Article 4 of the revised EU Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC sets out five steps for dealing with waste, ranked according to environmental impact The Waste Hierarchy: (descending order) Prevention /Re-Use Preparing for Re-Use Recycling Other Recovery Disposal

Waste Hierarchy 5 Transposed into UK law Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 Definitions of each stage: Article 3 Directive 2008/98/EC Non-Exhaustive lists of disposal and recovery operations: Annexes I and II Directive Prevention: measures taken before a substance, material or product becomes waste that reduce quantity of waste (including re-use)

Waste Hierarchy 6 Preparing for Re-Use: Checking, cleaning or repairing recovery operations which prepare products that have become waste so that they can be re-used without any other pre-processing Recycling: Recovery operations re-processing waste materials into products, materials, substances for the original or other purposes. Includes reprocessing of organic materials. Does not include energy recovery Recovery: Any operation, the principal result of which is waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials which would otherwise have been used, or waste being prepared to fulfil that function

Waste Hierarchy 7 Disposal: Any operation which is not recovery even where the operation has a secondary consequence the reclamation of substances or energy (eg Landfill / Incineration) Annex I sets out non-exhaustive list of disposal operations. Waste Management Policy directed to all those concerned with waste and not just its final disposal. Waste Framework Directive 2008 transposed into UK law in Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011

Definition of Waste 8 S75(4) Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990: ‘Controlled waste’ means household, industrial and commercial waste or any such waste S75(2) EPA 1990 ‘Waste’ means anything that is waste within meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2008/98/EC [Amended by Schedule 4, Part 1 Sect. 8(a) The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011] Article 3(1) Dir. 2008/98 ‘Waste’ means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard

Definition of Waste 9 In determining whether waste has been discarded it is a factor of importance if it has been consigned for waste recovery or waste disposal. If it has it constitutes waste. Annex I to EU Directive lists Disposal operations List of Recovery operations in Annex 2 Dividing line between use of raw materials in a normal industrial cycle (eg use of / re-use of fuel) [non-waste?] and consignment of waste to a recovery operation is fine [waste]. When does waste cease to be waste? Decided whether waste and thus regulated - on a case by case basis